This week, we talk about how to have effective brainstorms: what does good prep look like, and what should be done alone or with a group? In The Sidebar, we share our spicy takes about brutalism in interface design.

Golden Ratio Patrons:

Float
Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also let your team know where you're working from with Float's scheduled status. Working from the lake house next week? Add it in Float to let your team know, ahead of time! Learn more at float.com/designdetails.

CuriosityStream
Learn about any topic with CuriosityStream; the first on-demand documentary streaming service. There is always something new to learn about with thousands of award-winning documentaries on Technology, History, Nature, Food, Science, Travel, and more! Can’t decide what to watch? Try CuriosityStream’s new feature, ON NOW, to watch a continuous stream of the best documentaries. Get an entire year of streaming for just $14.99 when you sign up at curiositystream.com/design.

Latest VIP Patrons:

• Christopher Cos

The Sidebar:

The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.

In this week's Sidebar, we share our spicy takes on brutalism in interface design.

This comes from a GitHub issue:

hey guys, have you covered the movement of brutalism in design, and how its resurgence can be used to break out of the "design dogmas" in web design which have created a kind of banal /sameness to what we see online. i.e. sites are clearly functional but have lost brand personality. I've recently been thinking about how these new dogmas of web have perhaps led to a democratization of design and less opportunity for more senior designers to flex their creativity. Thoughts?

• This is what a brutalist world would look like on your phone
• Brutalist websites gallery
• Learn more about Jakob's law: Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.

Follow up:

• It's totally acceptable to like the Lobster typeface.
• macOS Big Sur Beta 9 has an updated QuickTime icon and it's much better.

Listener question:

mlamond asks: Do you prefer to brainstorm solutions with peers or coming up with solutions on your own? Does your work environment encourage one over the other?

• Mural is a nice tool for having remote brainstorms.

Cool Things:

• Brian shared Ted Lasso, a new show on Apple TV+. It's a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dark timeline.
• Marshall shared Better Touch Tool, an indie macOS application that allows you to customize the behavior of your Mac's trackpad.

Design Details on the Web:

• 📻 We are @designdetailsfm
  • 🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin
  • 🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock
  • 📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com
• 🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️
• ❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)
• ⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunes

Blue eyes, white dragon, can't lose.